laundered money
Criminally processed funds
Laundered money is funds that have been processed through legitimate-seeming transactions to disguise their illegal origins.
Drug profits might pass through shell companies, real estate deals, or cash-intensive businesses before emerging as apparently clean income.
The metaphor treats criminal proceeds as dirty—something that needs washing before it can be used openly.
The investigation traced laundered money through a network of offshore accounts.
- dirty cashIllegally acquired money
- illicit fundsIllegally acquired financial assets
- offshoreAway from land
- shell companyInactive firm for transactions
- shell corporationLegally registered but inactive business
straw man · cartel · crime · cash · untraceable · Swiss bank · numbered account · bank secrecy · wire transfer · criminal · mafia · front · front business · smuggling · concealed · illicit · transaction · deposit
- dirty moneyill-gotten gains, illicit funds, illicit gains, proceeds of crime, filthy lucre
- hidden moneyhidden assets, hidden wealth, hidden income, secret stash, cash stash
laundered moneyearned income
Pay from work
salary · wages · paycheck · sweat equity
launder, laundered, laundering, launders, laundry, laundress, lavender, lavatory, money